Director General of the Federal State Unitary Enterprise Rossiya Segodnya International Information Agency Dmitry Kiselеv at the presentation of a major international news brand "Sputnik" (RIA Novosti / Alexey Filippov) / RIA Novosti

Russia has launched an ambitious new project: an international news agency and radio Sputnik. The new media outlet wants to target global audiences with its non-mainstream take on world events.

The news
outlet was launched by Rossiya Segodnya under the umbrella of
the renowned RIA Novosti brand.

"Many people ask, 'Are you replacing RIA Novosti with
Sputnik?' No, we are not,” Rossiya Segodnya’s general
director, Dmitry Kiselev, said on Monday.

“RIA Novosti and its flagship website ria.ru remain a crucial
information source in Russia, one of the largest in the country’s
media market. But outside Russia our agency will be branded as
Sputnik, which sounds familiar, warm, swift and romantic,"
he explained.

Sputnik will take a new approach to international broadcasting:
instead of having radio stations in foreign languages based in
Moscow, as was the case before, Sputnik will rely on local media
outlets for content.

"It is absolutely clear to us that trying to broadcast in
foreign languages and win over foreign audiences from Moscow is
not a productive approach," Rossiya Segodnya Editor-in-Chief
Margarita Simonyan said.

The news outlet only uses modern formats in radio broadcasts,
“such as FM, digital DAB/DAB+ (Digital Radio Broadcasting),
HD-Radio, as well as mobile phones and the internet,”
according to Sputnik’s website.
Sputnik promises to come up with a “different perspective” to
Western mainstream media news coverage.

“We will provide alternative interpretations that are,
undoubtedly, in demand around the world. We think that the world
is tired of the unipolar point of view… We believe that the basis
of such a multicolored and multipolar world is international
law," Kiselev said.